151–160 of 194 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
We blame the drivers of cars without headlights on for night time collisions, why would cyclists be any different?
We don't blame drivers of dark-colored cars. Cyclists everywhere I know of have to have lights up to an appropriate standard.
The minimum standard for lighting on bikes is really inadequate, IMO.
This was eye opening (pun not intended) and make me a bit worried as a recreational cyclist - many of my clothes are dark and it seems worth investing in brighter ones. As a driver, I found that using BGE setting of the side mirrors (it's wider out, slightly overlapping with rearview mirror), coupled with keeping an eye on the road gives me a much better situational awareness, and prevents the need to turn my head in…
I had the euro glass on my Golf, and the ability to see more than just a massive grille filling up your entire mirror glass on the driver's side is a godsend. I can actually see a car 2 lanes over moving into the same lane I'm trying to move into, using just my mirrors.
I've used this mirror adjustment method forever, and it really does eliminate blind spots, especially given correct mirrors. It depends on the car, though -- our Tesla 3 has pretty bad blind spots in the peripheral area because the glass doesn't adjust far enough out, and they haven't started selling the car in Europe yet, so you can't get the correct glass for it.
I've often griped about how hard it is to see out of modern cars with thick airbag-equipped pillars, but still wondered how I managed to "miss" something that clearly cannot completely hide in an A-pillar. (eg, because the pillar is diagonal, the pedestrian's head or feet or both will still be visible even if their midsection is obscured.
I used to commute through an area with an endless sea of stop signs, which almost NEVER had cross traffic. My car had a rearview mirror that came down too far and tended to block part of my view forward and to the right, and sometimes pedestrians or cross traffic would 'hide' in the pillars. It's one of those things where, if there had been no stop signs, I would have been much more likely to notice cross traffic, but having to look at the sign and stop line takes your focus for that last 2-3 seconds as you slow to a stop, so even if you're "sure" you scanned for peds/cross traffic, maybe once every 6 months I would begin to proceed and then suddenly see the movement of a vehicle or person in my peripheral vision.
Those pillars and the rearview mirror didn't block what i was looking for, but they must have cued my eyes to not look 'too close' to them. Interesting.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The air horn is such a 100+ year old technology. I hope an electronic proximity based system with a bigger vocabulary than "HONK!" appears in the next decade.
I don't think you're going to find an electric horn that can get as loud as an air horn.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The air horn is such a 100+ year old technology. I hope an electronic proximity based system with a bigger vocabulary than "HONK!" appears in the next decade.
I don't think you're going to find an electric horn that can get as loud as an air horn.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just to be clear, you still have to look over before you do change lanes. It's just that you don't have to look as often to figure out that you can't change lanes yet.
This is in contrast to what the article from NHTSA says: "With this new setting, it is no longer necessary to turn and look into the blindzones." ... which is in contrast to what the original article quite emphatically says: "... move your head or you're dead ..." I like the novel mirror arrangement and will try it but I hope people will follow the advice of the fighter pilot, and not NHTSA, and continue to move thei…
I found that my blind spots were reduced but not eliminated. It’s scary to think that somebody on the road might stop looking over after adjusting their mirrors.
One solution that I have more faith in is the little convex “blind-spot mirrors.” Those actually seem to cover everything in the blind spot and then some more (at least on the driver side).
Transportation cyclist here. This is a great article, but it only indirectly touches upon one of the most effective tools a cyclist could have: an air horn. I have an Air Zound air horn and I feel much less safe riding without it. I'll often give a few toots before approaching an intersection to increase the chance that I am seen. And it has probably saved me from some major crashes when I lay down the horn on someon…
As a fellow commuting cyclist, I find that the most effective "tool", by far, is constant awareness, and a significantly reduced faith in humanity. I assume that everyone is distracted and not paying attention to what they're doing, and that informs my "riding rules": Try to make eye contact, don't assume you've been seen. Never be in the blind spot. Never pass on the right. Cross on a red light to get ahead of the p…
This was eye opening (pun not intended) and make me a bit worried as a recreational cyclist - many of my clothes are dark and it seems worth investing in brighter ones. As a driver, I found that using BGE setting of the side mirrors (it's wider out, slightly overlapping with rearview mirror), coupled with keeping an eye on the road gives me a much better situational awareness, and prevents the need to turn my head in…
Saying cyclists should wear bright clothing is blaming the victims of vehicle violence. https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/stop-victim-blaming-cy...
Cyclists vs. drivers is consistently one of the most vicious flamewar topics we see, so this is not a theoretical question.
To mods: A complete aside, but I posted this yesterday (say 30 hours ago) not today. is this some reset for labour day or other deeply cunning ranking algorithm? Or maybe i fat fingered it ...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"see horn use as hostility" Of course they do. When people in cars honk at other people in cars, the majority of time it is a sign of hostility. They've been conditioned to perceive the use of a horn as a sign of hostility.
Cars need to 2 horns: A) excuse me/I'm here/the light has changed B) you are a fucking idiot